There's No School for Super Heroes
by silly pancake22
Summary: Dick is going through an identity crisis after giving up his title as Robin, the boy wonder, and leaving Batman in his past. Though he's having trouble trying to decide where to go from here. Barbara attempts to cheer him up by taking him to a college frat party. Dick thinks she's taking him as a date but what is Barbara really trying to do? DickXBabs aka RobinXBatgirl


There's No School for Super Heroes

DickXBabs

characters © DC

story © silly pancake22

Friday night and a very depressed Dick Grayson was sulking on Barbara's bed, staring up at the ceiling of her apartment trying to decode the message among its pattern. What was it trying to tell him? Who was he? What was the meaning of life? 'Now this is really bad' Dick thought to himself, 'I'm looking to a ceiling for answers.'

Dick was finding himself in a bit of a limbo. Last week he had told off Batman for the last time. He was done. Done with being the sidekick, the scapegoat more like it. He up and quit, moved out, had been living on Barbara's couch for the last few days and was just beginning to experience his first heroic withdrawals. But he was too proud, or maybe to ashamed, he wasn't quite sure which, to go and apologize to Batman and beg to be taken back. It wasn't an option. But what would he do next? Who was Dick Grayson without the title of Robin, boy wonder, attached to him?

His thoughts were interrupted by Barbara entering the room. "Ok, that's it!" She pulled him off the bed and on to his feet. Dick tried to catch his balance from his abrupt change of central gravity. "What's it?" He replied with a grumpy frown.

"We're going out tonight!" She poked him in the chest.

"You've got to be kiddin-"

"No." Her tone was intimidatingly stern. "I am sick and tired of watching you mope around day and night, you've got to do something, man! You're in a total FUNK!"

He huffed. She was right. "Where... are we going?"

"College frat party."

Dick thought about his options, if he jumped out the window now, chances are he could sustain a serious enough injury to avoid all of this. But before he could make a leap for it, she grabbed his hand and lead him to her dresser. She tossed him a large tee shirt that read "Gotham University est. 1904" across the front.

"But Babs, I'm not a student at the university?"

"Would you rather wear your boy wonder costume?" She antagonized.

He huffed again and reluctantly put on the shirt.

"How did you even find out about this frat party? Do you know anyone thats going to be there?"

"Yes," She stated, "I tutored the majority of the frat boys through their computer programming classes."

'Sure,' Dick thought quietly to himself, 'They invited you to repay you for tutoring them out of the kindness of your heart...' He frowned, he suspected the real reason she had been invited to this party is because she was easily one of the most beautiful students attending Gotham University and to Dick, there was no competition, the most perfect girl in the galaxy. She was smart, but also kind and humble, oh yeah and a total ass-kicking superhero on the side. He had an underlying fear that these "frat boys" had only invited Barbara with the hopes of getting her intoxicated and having their way with her. Maybe that was why she had invited him to come along?

Again, his thoughts were interrupted by Barbara pulling at his arm to get him through the front door of her apartment. "Let's go!" she yelled, "I'm doing this for your own good!"

Dick cracked a small smile, thinking that maybe for a moment, she was really doing this to appear that she had a 'date' to this party so that the other boys wouldn't bother her. Dick felt rather flattered at this thought and thought about all the possibilities the night had in store for them.

'Well,' he smiled to himself, 'How many other chances am I going to get to go on a date with THE Barbara Gordon?' Might as well enjoy it he thought.

The party was only about two blocks away so they walked from her apartment. Dick suddenly took notice of Barbara's attire. She dawned a spaghetti strapped black top that cropped just above her belly button, low cut dark jeans and gold flip flops. She wore her hair down, something she hardly ever did, he had never actually noticed how long it was, it reached down just below her rib cage. Another thing he noticed, she was actually wearing makeup!

"You look nice tonight.." He smiled down at her.  
"Thanks!" She said, "The college student look isn't bad on you either I have to say" There was a sense of pride in her voice because she had dressed him.

They arrived at the apartment door, Barbara knocked and only seconds later a blonde guy answered the door.

"BAAAAAAAABS!" He yelled, the beer in his hand almost spilled as he gave her a welcoming bear hug.

"Hey Todd!" She smiled, "This is my friend Dick, hope you don't mind I brought him along tonight."  
"Nah girly," Todd said, "The more the merrier, man!" Todd reached out a hand to shake with Dick whom was not as eager to be friendly. Barbara elbowed him gently, and reluctantly, Dick shook Todd's hand.

"Uh, well c'mon in guys! Mi Casa is... Your house too!"

After the fifth giant beer hugging bear hug that Barbara received from one of the many drunken strangers in the room, Dick realized he wasn't having the night he'd hoped for. He looked down at his watch. It was only 10:15 p.m. from his knowledge of college parties according to police records and noise complaints, they usually lasted till about 2 a.m. He had a long way to go.

Todd came up to Dick and handed him a beer, "Wanna drink, man?"

"No." Dick scuffed.

"We got pizza?"

"No."

"Well... dancing?"

"No."

"Fooseball?"

"No."

"Well... we got chairs, I guess you could just, y'know...Keep...sitting."

Dick nodded his head and Todd walked off awkwardly.

A few drunk girls had come up to Dick trying to get him to dance or let them give him a lap dance, to which Dick responded by moving into the other room. Only to find Todd talking to Barbara. This deeply upset him because Barbara had hardly talked to him all night. Why did she bring him here if he wasn't going to be of any use. She should have left him alone with his ceiling of answers back at the apartment. Dick's anger was rapidly beginning to overwhelm him. He decided to step outside for some fresh air, some air that didn't smell like sweat and beer.

He leaned over the railing of the balcony and sunk his head between his shoulders. Finally, some silence. He then heard the disturbingly familiar sound of a cape whooshing over him and the sound of two familiar footsteps behind him.

"What do you want.." Dick hissed.

"You're away from me for all of a week and you're already a normal party boy huh?"

"It's not what you think..." Dick turned to face the black figure. "I'm here to protect Barbara from those losers inside."

"You know as well as I do Barbara doesn't need you to protect her, she's a super hero Dick," He stepped closer to him, allowing his structured facial features to be clearly defined in the lighting. "You'd be better off being a super hero too, you're not a normal boy and you know it."

"I'm not a boy at all!" Dick began to raise his voice. "That's the problem! You look down upon me like I'm still a child! I'm a man now, Batman, and I deserve to be treated like one."

"If you act like a child, then I'm going to treat you like one. When you act like a man, then I will treat you like a man." And in one fail swoop, batman was gone.

Dick clenched his jaw, now he was furious. He busted back through the door of the apartment, startling a few of the people near by, but this was no matter. Dick was only entering to find Barbara and then take them both home.

He had searched nearly every room in the apartment and couldn't find her. Finally he checked the last room at the end of the hallway, it appeared to be a bedroom, he pushed open the door. There he saw a struggling Barbara trying to force Todd off of her. "Stop it! You're a jerk, I said get off me!" She screamed.  
"What's the big idea? It's not like you're weirdo friend is gonna care!"

At that Dick grabbed the blonde pest by the shoulder and threw him against the wall.  
"Actually I do care." He hissed at the boy.

Todd took a good swing, Barbara let out a scream, she tried to Push Todd's hand away, his fist grazed the top of Dick's left ear and then circled around and hit Barbara in the rib.

Without a second thought Dick threw him on the ground and placed his foot over his throat.  
"STOP!" Babara yelled before he could go any further. Ordinarily, Dick wouldn't have stopped, but the tone in her voice was one of fear and Dick's primary concern became to get her away from here.

"We're leaving" Dick scowled down at the scum of a boy beneath him and lifted his shoe off of the boy's throat. He reached his hand around Barbara's waist and led her to the door.

The whole way back the two were quiet, Barbara was fighting back tears, her arms were crossed trying to keep her body warm. Dick placed his arm around her shoulder to comfort her but said nothing.  
After what had seemed like the longest walk back, they reached the inside of her apartment.

Barbara flung herself at Dick and hugged his torso tightly. "I'm so sorry" She sobbed burying her face into his chest.

"No," He wrapped his arms around her gently. "I'm the one who's sorry, I should have been in there looking after you, I never should have let him hurt you."

She looked up at him with eyes stained red with tears, "Where did you go?"

He took a deep break and walked into her apartment, preparing to tell her about his talk with Batman. He layed down on her bed and rubbed his face with his hands. She timmidly took a seat next to him, anxious to hear his words.

"I stepped out for some fresh air, I only expected to be out there for a minute or two but then..."

"Batman." She said.

"How'd you know?" He looked over at her, did she know Batman was trying to get Dick back on his team?

"Got damnit! I knew it!" She said, "Bruce has been bugging me all week long to try and convince you to go back to being the 'Boy Wonder'!"

Dick groaned and buried his face in his hands again. She reached over and cupped his shoulder to show comfort.

"...I just don't think I can do it anymore."

"And there's no reason that you should!" She told him. These words were a relief for him to hear.

"But then what do I do?" He groaned.

She chuckled, "Dick? Do you know why I wanted to take you out tonight?" She combed her fingers through his dark wavy hair.

"No, but please tell me it wasn't because you're actually friends with those savages?"

"No." She looked down. "They're jerks, but I wanted to show you that you don't fit in with those guys!"

"Well thank goodness." He sighed and cracked a small smile at her.  
"Yes," She said, "You're meant to be a hero, Dick, it's who you are!"

"I don't know anymore. I can't go on being Robin the sidekick forever."

"Thats not what I meant," She continued. "You're a hero Dick, no matter what, but maybe its time you be you're own hero."

Shockingly enough, this thought had never occurred to Dick before. He had never realized that he could still be a hero without Batman there beside him.

"Maybe then I can prove to Batman that I'm a man." He whispered

"Of course, you're a man, Dick, don't be ridiculous! You're a respectable gentleman and if Batman can't see that then it's his loss." she smiled down at him.

"Yeah, okay, but if I'm off being my own hero then who's going to be your hero when guys like Todd come around?" He chuckled.

She let out a small laugh. It was then that she noticed his ear was blue and purple from where Todd had swung at him, and shortly after she felt the dull pain of bruising on her rib.

"Look, you're ear!" She touched it softly, examining it carefully.

He rolled his eyes. "Whatever, that asshole had terrible aim, how's your rib?" He propped himself up on one elbow to face her.

She lifted up her shirt just enough to reveal a forming purple blotch on her the right side of her ribcage. "I'll be okay." She said.

"I should have prevented all of this..." He sunk his head down in shame.

Barbara let a small smile form across her lips and without any second thought, she picked up Dick's head and kissed him softly above his ear, hoping it would make his bruise feel better. Dick's cheek flushed a light shade of red but he turned so that she wouldn't see.

"You know, I was beginning to think that you had taken me to that party to make me jealous." He chuckled.

"Oh please," Barbara said as she made her way to lay down next to Dick on the bed. "You have nothing to be jealous of with those guys."

"So, you took me there to make them jealous?" He laughed, he liked this reason better than her 'teach you a lesson method'.

"Precisely." She said jokingly. "And obviously it worked." Glancing over at his bruised ear.

"Worth it." He said with a soft grin.

The two turned to look at each other, their eyes met and neither of them could look away for what had seemed like hours.

Dick's heart began beating fast, this night had been pretty much started as one of the worst night's he had ever suffered through. But none of that seemed to matter at the moment, he was looking into the blue green oceans that were Barbara Gordon's eyes.

"You're beautiful." The words slipped off his tongue, even he couldn't believe he said them.

She looked at him with a shocked expression.

'Take it back, take it back! You idiot!" Thought Dick for a brief second.

"Do you think so?" Barbara asked quietly.

"Do I?" Dick could no longer control the words that he was saying it was like they were pouring out of a reservoir in the back of his mind. "Barbara, you are the most beautiful girl I have ever known, I've always thought that about you."

"Why didn't you ever say anything before?"

"Batman told me if I ever dated you, he would string me up by my toenails over a fifty story building and wait till all the blood rushed to my head and eventually my toenails would weaken and give way and I would fall fifty stories down to meet my ultimate doom." He recited it like it was a memory. "So I never did."

"Oh." said Barbara.

"Yeah." said Dick.

"Well... What does he know? I mean, he doesn't see your potential. You're going to prove him wrong!"

"So, you're okay with me calling you beautiful?" Dick asked.

"Yes!" Barbara said with a chuckle

"Sh-should we kiss now, or something? I-I mean if you want to?"

Barbara couldn't help but smile at him. Yes, Dick Grayson was a man, but with the soul of a child. This was her favorite thing about him.

"Yes, you can kiss me."

Dick couldn't leap towards her fast enough, he wrapped his hand around the back of her head and pulled her lips towards his. She had to catch her balance but once she found it she kissed him back as hard as she could. The two were quickly running out of breath but the excitement of the kiss left them both unable to pull away. Seconds away from suffocating the two parted and gasped for air.

Dick reached down and laced his fingers with Barbara's. He turned to look at her. "Thank you," He said. "For everything."

"And thank you," She smiled. "For being my hero." She kissed his bruise one final time before the two crashed on her bed from the exhausting events of the evening.

_

End.

Okay, finally, a story that's somewhat put together. At least, I think it is. Don't ask me. It's like 1:30 a.m. and y'all know I don't proof read these things.

Sorry I haven't written anything in such a long time. I really miss writing these two. I love them!

Thank you for reading! Oh, and please, if you don't have anything nice to write don't write it at all, or you know... at least make that shit anonymous!

Peace out girl scouts! (And boyscouts?)


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